Japanese Story? - Last Man Standing (1996) Discussion

[–] holerj 22 years ago

I'll answer my own question with a quote from James Berardinelli's review:

"And, since this story has already been filmed twice before, in much better versions (Akira Kurosawa's 1961 Yojimbo and Sergio Leone's 1964 A Fistful of Dollars), the audience is left wondering why Hollywood felt the need to do it again."

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[–] 22 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Ringbearer1420 21 years ago

BETTER THAN THE KUROSAWA ORIGINAL! WHY BECAUSE IT'S GOT WHITE PEOPLE, TOSHIRO MIFUNE WOULD KICK BRUCE'S ASS ANY DAY OF THE WEEK! HAHA

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[–] Pstanb 14 years ago

And Clint would kick Both there arses, LOL!!!

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[–] mhoney-1 21 years ago

The truth is that this did not originate as Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo." Kurosawa took the story from Dashiel Hammet's 1920s-era "Red Harvest." He turned it into a Japanese spoof of the western (in some eyes) and made a classic. I guess after "A Fistful of Dollars" they decided to make this movie more of a western-themed film than a gangster pic. And to answer Bernardinelli, they remade it set in the time period that Dashiel Hammet would have written the original. But they didn't credit him for story, only Kurosawa.

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[–] phreno 21 years ago

Yes, I, too, recognized Hammet's Red Harvest as the basis for this flik, even with the lateral dual 45 caliber leaps as a distraction. In fact, I'd like to see Walter Hill update some of the earlier Hammet classics. Hill packs an entertaining punch and has contributed heavily to American neo-noir.

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[–] moyet 21 years ago

Some of the more importent part of the story is not in Red Harvest, only in Yojimbo.

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[–] daveinmaine12 21 years ago

I remember noticing the similarity and wondering about that. That Kurosawa was working from Red Harvest makes sense. Clearly, however, Fistfull of Dollars and Last Man Standing are based on Yojimbo and not on Red Harvest

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[–] adogg4629 21 years ago

Let us not forget that Miller's Crossing is also based on Red Harvest (or "inspired byt it)

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[–] Swashbucklist 21 years ago

So there's four of them?

"We're going to fight fire with marshmellows"

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[–] Heavens_Chimney 21 years ago

Miller's Crossing doesn't count. It's closer to The Glass Key, and even that's a stretch. It's more inspired by Hammett in general, and those two novels in a slightly more particular sense.

Also: I understand why they credit Yojimbo and not Red Harvest. Though Yojimbo's story is based on Red Harvest, it's a different story, and different enough that it's fairly easy to see whether or not the novel or the movie is the basis for a later film. Kurosawa definitely rewrote Hammett in a way Leone and Hill did not with Kurosawa. Even the main character in the Hammett and Kurosawa stories is largely different, and the main characters in A Fistful of Dollars and Last Man Standing pretty clearly follow the latter.

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[–] jmalmsten 16 years ago

well, when counting Millers Crossing... there's at least 5...

Yojimbo
A fistful of dollars
Last man standing
Millers Crossing

And the obscure icelandic viking film Hrafninn Flýgur...

No I did not let the cat run around on the keyboard, that's the title. It's also known as Korpen flyger (Sweden), Revenge of the Barbarians and When the Raven Flies.

basically a total clone of the story, with a knife-throwing viking coming to an island, cleaning it out of the two local clans.

And oh, we got recently Sukiyaki Western Django, that's pretty much a riff on both westerns and samurai-epics in a, to say the least, weird mix of cultures and nationalities... let's just say... in that movie... noone cared about anything making sense.

it's a cool story, in my opinion not very well executed in Last Man Standing.

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[–] Pharaoh-in-de-Nile 16 years ago

'Millers Crossing' is generally inspired more by 'The Glass Key' (incidentally where Kurosawa got the inspiration for the beating scene in 'Yojimbo') but does contain some material inspired by 'Red Harvest', yes!

"Nothings gonna change my world!"

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[–] flores-4 21 years ago

Actually, even though it was not credited, I think it was based very, very, very closely on Dashiell Hammett's 1927 "Red Harvest". In fact, Dashiell Hammett's estate sued over the movie.

The lawsuits didn't stop there. The owners of Yojimbo sued. Then, because, Yojimbo was said to have been a Japanese remake of "A Fistful of Dollars", United Artist also, sued. Since "Red Harvest" pre-dates all of these films and the story is so vey close, I think they have the strongest case.

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[–] Urado 20 years ago

I wouldn't say its closely based on Red Harvest at all. Sure they both have one man playing bad sides against each other but besides that their isn't too much similarity. In Red Harvest the private dic, hired by a crooked mine owner, plays many sides (three gangs, the police, the mine owner, and a professional informer) against each other to rid the town of its criminal element.There is a whole lot of plot and intrigue that Yojimbo doesn't have. The private Dic isn't even alone in his quest to clean up the town, he has assistants that do a lot of the work for him. Red Harvest may have inspired Yojimbo but they are not the same story.

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[–] ContinentalOp 17 years ago

Loads of the lines in 'Yojimbo' are taken directly from 'Red Harvest'; it is teh same story but oversimplified.

Anyway, there was an adaptation of 'Red harvest' called 'Roundhouse Nights'.

Regards,
The Count

The Apple Scruffs Corps, 07

"Imagine"

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